New Teaching with Brian Selznick Website Launches with a Virtual Field Trip to the American Museum of Natural History

Free Teaching Materials and Classroom Activities Bring Bestsellers Wonderstruck and The Invention of Hugo Cabret to Life in the Classroom at www.scholastic.com/teachbrianselznick

New York, NY (December 13, 2011) - An all new and richly engaging website for classrooms, Teaching with Brian Selznick, launches today with a virtual field trip to the American Museum of Natural History, the setting for Selznick’s newest bestselling children’s book, Wonderstruck. The virtual field trip, which is also available in closed caption, is hosted by Selznick and museum president Ellen V. Futter, and takes students on a tour through three exhibits in the museum: the Wolf Diorama, the Ahnighito Meteorite, and the Giant Anopheles Mosquito, all prominently featured in Wonderstruck. Students will also learn about the museum’s history, exhibits, and collections from a museum curator, an exhibitions manager, and a senior scientist. Paired with the virtual field trip are activities for each stop on the tour to help students and teachers further explore the subject matter through science, language arts, social studies and art resources and activities.

Additionally, the new Teaching with Brian Selznick site includes classroom resources for The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Selznick’s Caldecott Award-winning book and the basis for the celebrated film, Hugo, by Academy Award–winning director Martin Scorsese.

Teaching with Brian Selznick offers teachers and students easy access to Brian Selznick interviews, book reviews, and discussion guides for both books. The site adds even more rich classroom resources to the more than 100,000 pages of free content, lesson plans, activities, and videos available on Scholastic.com, the internet’s most popular website for teachers, from Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL).

“Brian Selznick’s books are mesmerizing and a perfect way to bring science, social studies, and art curriculum to life,” said Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic. “We’re excited to provide students with this unique tour of the American Museum of Natural History, and teachers with lessons and activities to bring these wonderful books into the classroom.”

“We are delighted to be a part of Brian Selznick’s magnificent Wonderstruck and its wonderful educational extension, Teaching with Brian Selznick,” said Ellen V. Futter, President of the American Museum of Natural History. “For many generations, the museum has been a place of inspiration for people of all ages and backgrounds—scientists and artists like Brian Selznick as well as teachers, students, and the general public. This new website, created with our partners at Scholastic, allows us to reach out digitally to bring the wonders of the Museum to classrooms and people everywhere.”

Brian Selznick’s newest release, Wonderstruck, expands upon the genre-breaking form he invented in his trailblazing debut novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. With 460 pages of original artwork, Wonderstruck is another awe-inspiring multi-layered reading experience that weaves together two compelling, independent stories—one told in words and the other in pictures—set fifty years apart.

A #1 New York Times and a USA Today bestseller, The Invention of Hugo Cabret won the 2008 Caldecott Medal and was named a National Book Award Finalist, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book, among countless accolades. With 284 pages of original drawings, The Invention of Hugo Cabret combines elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film to create an entirely new reading experience for all ages.

About Brian Selznick:

Brian Selznick graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with the intention of becoming a set designer for the theater. However, after spending three years as a bookseller and designing window displays for a children's bookstore in Manhattan, he was inspired to create children’s books of his own. In addition to his award-winning novels, Wonderstruck and The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian has illustrated many picture books which have received numerous awards and distinctions, including a Caldecott Honor for The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley, and Robert F. Sibert Honors for When Marian Sang by Pam Muñoz Ryan and Walt Whitman: Words for America by Barbara Kerley. He divides his time between Brooklyn, New York, and San Diego, California.

For more information about Scholastic, visit our Media Room. For more information about the American Museum of Natural History, visit www.amnh.org.